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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22461217">Anything but red or blue</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple'>ToxicPineapple</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Femslash February 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(That's the prompt), Bittersweet, Bloom - Freeform, Canon-Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Femslash February, Flowers, Fluff, Gardening, Gardening is self care, Healing, Implied Character Death, Introspection, No Dialogue, Post V3, Post-Canon, mentions of angst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 17:35:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>920</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22461217</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Himiko insists on planting everything, maybe because Maki worked so hard weeding. Her red hair, which is much longer nowadays, is tied back into a ponytail, and she smears dirt across her face when she pauses, panting with exertion, and gives Maki a wide smile so beautiful that she nearly spills her lemonade. Each of the little plants is marked with a strip of cardboard. Each square has to be watered frequently, unless it rains. Every day, they’ll be checking on their little plants. To see their progress.</p><p>---</p><p>Years after the killing game is over, Himiko suggests that they start a garden.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harukawa Maki/Yumeno Himiko</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Femslash February 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616182</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Anything but red or blue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>written for day two of femslash february! the prompt is "bloom"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It takes time for them to create.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Time, and a lot more effort than Maki is expecting to put into it. To </span>
  <em>
    <span>want </span>
  </em>
  <span>to put into it, for that matter, because when Himiko says, “Hey, let’s make a garden,” she honestly isn’t very enthusiastic about it. What does she care about plants? Not at all, really, and she knows even less than she cares. But Himiko rarely ever asks for anything nowadays, hasn’t, since they ended Danganronpa, and it’s been years since she’s seen the red-haired woman excited about anything, so she goes along with it, because it feels like the thing to do.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s a quick trip to the supermarket on the corner, that’s something Maki learns very early on. Gardening equipment is on aisle three, seeds are all the way in the back on both sides, and there are so very many of them. Maki is more in awe of Himiko though, the way her red-brown eyes widen as she twirls on her foot and looks around at everything. Smiles. Like a kid in a candy store, is perhaps how the saying goes, but Maki doesn’t think that a candy store could bring on such happiness from her friend. She lets Himiko choose all of the plants to begin with, even the ones that she says Maki can choose, because she likes to watch her pick. The way her eyes sweep over the shelves, looking for the right seeds.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And they’re all good, Maki supposes, but the ones that Himiko picks are the best. Perhaps she only thinks so because Himiko chooses them, but they feel right. They feel good. From the packages, they’re all very colourful. And that’s what they need, really, colour, some colour other than red or blue, and Himiko has chosen many. Purple, even though purple is a sad colour. Green and yellow, even though those are sad colours too. Orange and pink. Anything but red or blue. It’ll be a delight to see, Maki decides.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The man who works behind the counter is old, and he doesn’t recognise them. Not from Danganronpa, but also not from being around the neighbourhood, because they aren’t really parts of the neighbourhood. They don’t go anywhere or talk to anyone. Mostly, the two of them just stay inside. That’s just fine with Maki, except when the man asks them if they have just moved in, she wonders why she gets a sad feeling in the pit of her stomach. A kind of sadness that she hasn’t felt in such a long time, since everyone in the killing game found out her secret, her fake secret, and shut her out. Thought she’d kill them. A sense of not belonging, but… of wishing she did.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It lasts until they’re out of the shop and walking back to their house, hand-in-hand, the materials swinging from the back Maki is carrying. Himiko is talking about something, talking more than she usually does. Probably related to the garden. Maki cares more about the glimmer in her eye.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The worst part is probably the weeding. Kneeling in the soil for hours, curving over so far and for so long she thinks her spine might get stuck that way. Removing weed after weed after weed. The sun is hot over her head and the soil is moist beneath her knees, no doubt staining her pants and creeping beneath her clothes to track mud all over the floor inside.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Still, when they’re all done, and Shuichi hands her a glass of cold lemonade, they, all three of them, look at the bed of fresh soil that is clean now, free from all the offenders, and Maki thinks that perhaps the weeding isn’t so bad after all.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Himiko insists on planting everything, maybe because Maki worked so hard weeding. Her red hair, which is much longer nowadays, is tied back into a ponytail, and she smears dirt across her face when she pauses, panting with exertion, and gives Maki a wide smile so beautiful that she nearly spills her lemonade. Each of the little plants is marked with a strip of cardboard. Each square has to be watered frequently, unless it rains. Every day, they’ll be checking on their little plants. To see their progress.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The progress is agonising at first, but then rewarding quickly and all at once, Maki is nearly overwhelmed by how quickly the colours start to appear. Vivid sunset oranges and banana yellows bursting out of the ground, lavenders (and lilacs) and bright greens, curling up and out towards the sun, reaching towards the sky in a way that Maki never did, not for one second in her fabricated life, and not a single moment afterwards.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In a way those plants are much better off than she is, and it makes her stop to think about them. To think about these plants that are thriving when she is barely moving along.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But Himiko tucks herself under her arm one day, a handful of red petals in one of her hands, and beams up at her, her eyes lit ablaze with a passionate intensity that is unfamiliar and yet so nostalgic before Maki’s eyes that she can barely stop herself from leaning down and pressing Himiko’s lips against hers in a kiss. She settles for touching them to her forehead, and when she pulls back, Himiko hums, and does the real kissing part for her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>(Under the mid-afternoon sun, the flowers in their new garden have begun to bloom, and so has Maki.)</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>these two make me sad</p><p>again, making this a draft ahead of time. it's still tuesday. but you'll be seeing this on sunday. funny how that works. let's hope i remember to post it. e.e</p><p>wonder if i have it in me to write one (1) more before i go to sleep</p><p>we'll see i guess</p></blockquote></div></div>
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